Programmable “speed-dial” keys are known features of modem telephone sets. After lifting the handset to obtain a dial tone, depression of one or more speed-dial keys permit the user to connect to predetermined telephone numbers, which are usually frequently dialed telephone numbers. Typically, one speed-dial key corresponds to one predetermined telephone number. Some known systems store a large number of speed-dial numbers and in such cases, the telephone often provides for entry of a two or three digit number or sequence to access the speed-dial number. The user may depress the speed-dial key followed by one, two, or three digits to cause dialing of the specified speed-dial number.
Speed-dial telephone sets are also known in the hospitality industry, such as in hotels for use in guestrooms. Typically, the guestroom telephone includes a plurality of speed-dial keys corresponding, for example, to room service, the front desk, restaurants, taxi company, rental car services and the like. In this way, the hotel owner can feature certain services, and may even market advertising space on the guestroom telephone faceplate. The speed-dial feature also significantly reduces routine call traffic to the front desk from guests seeking various telephone numbers and connection with various services.
As such, speed-dial keys are a popular feature for guestroom usage in the hospitality industry. However, there are costs associated with implementing speed-dial features in guestroom telephones because hotel personnel must manually program the various speed-dial telephone numbers into each guestroom telephone. It is very costly and time consuming to initially pre-program each speed-dial telephone number into each guestroom telephone, especially in larger commercial establishments. In known guestroom telephones, hotel personnel or a hotel technician must manually program each telephone by entering the guestroom and physically depressing the correct sequence of keys on the guestroom telephone to effect the speed-dial programming. The speed-dial programming must also be verified.
Alternatively, the face plate of the guestroom telephone may be removed to provide access to hidden switches to facilitate the speed-dial programming. Further, the speed-dial keys must be reprogrammed whenever a telephone number changes or when one or more of the featured services offered via the speed-dial key changes. For example, the hotel may choose to change the local pizza restaurant corresponding to a specific speed-dial key. This is clearly expensive and time consuming. It is therefore desirable to provide a method and apparatus for automatically programming a telephone with speed-dial data.
Known guestroom telephones typically include a “store” function key that enables reprogramming of the speed-dial keys, which “store” key is usually hidden under the removable faceplate that overlays the guestroom telephones. This prevents accidental loss of programmed functions due to the store key being pressed or tampered with by the hotel guest. However, the result is that extra time is required to first remove the faceplate overlay on each telephone before reprogramming, and replace the faceplate when finished, even if only one speed-dial key per telephone needs to be reprogrammed.
Further, the typical speed-dial key programming sequence in known guestroom telephones requires pressing the store key, then dialing the digits to be stored, one by one, and finally pressing the “speed-dial” key to effect programming. Clearly, this is tedious and prone to human error. To guarantee that a speed-dial key has been correctly programmed, the speed-dial key must be depressed to determine if in fact the correct destination answers the call. Again, this is extremely time consuming for both the person performing the reprogramming operation and the staff at the destination telephone, such as at the pizza restaurant, the main desk, or other destination to be dialed by the speed-dial key.